Skein-holder for unwinding skeins of thread



Oct. 29, 1968 P. GILBOS SKEIN-HOLDER FOR UNWINDING SKEINS OF THREAD 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 6, 1966 //VV/VTOE p404. 1. 50.!

5 V Wasmt MMwzg ATTQE V YJ Oct. 29, 1968 P. GILBOS 3,408,022

SKEIN-HOLDER FOR UNWINDING SKEINS OF THREAD Filed April 6, 1966 2Sheets-Sheet 2 'nvvewi-ae 1 ,404 6/4 60.;

United States Patent 3,408,022 SKEIN-HOLDER FOR UNWINDIN G SKEINS 0FTHREAD Paul Gilbos, Herdersem, Belgium, assignor toConstructiewerkhuizen Gilbos P.V.B.A., Aalst, Belgium Filed Apr. 6,1966, Ser. No. 545,201 Claims priority, appligzztoizlgelgium, Apr. 7,1965,

6 Claims. 01. 242-1101 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE For unwinding skeinswhich have been dyed or processed in any other way, use has been madeuntil now of skein-holders with extensible arms, which are rotatedtogether with the skein during unwinding of the thread.

If, in the course of this process, a place is met where the skein isentangled, the latter and its support must be brought to a standstill asfast as possible in order to prevent the thread from breaking. Itfollows therefrom that it is important to limit the inertia by makinguse of a narrow skein and of a light support. This however preventsapplying to the skein-holder a fairly heavy mechanism for expanding thearms.

When dealing with wide skeins of which the width is at least equal tohalf the diameter and in which the thread crosses at an angle of to 30degrees, useful advantage can be taken of the fact that the crossdisposition of the thread practically excludes any possibility ofentanglement of the latter by unwinding it at high speed over the headof the skein without requiring the skein-holder to partake in the rotarymotion during unwinding as was done before.

Due to the fact that the skein-holder may now stay put, it is no longernecessary to overcome its inertia, which means that it is now possibleto apply to said skein-holder a fairly heavy and sturdy mechanism whichis not only capable of gathering entirely the arms at the middle of theskein-holder, thus enabling the skein suspended to pins during thedyeing and such like processes to pass readily over said arms, but whichmight moreover be able to maintain a steady tension between said armsduring the unwinding process.

It is with this purpose in view that, according to the maincharacteristic feature of the present invention, the skein-holderderived from the latter mainly consists of the following parts anddevices, viz: a shaft with disc, which can be rotated by hand, severalbearing cylinders which can rotate about their respective center linesand arranged about the periphery of said disc, whereby the centerlinesof all discs are parallel to that of said shaft; in each one of saidcylinders, an arm fitted parallel to and protruding from the centerlineof the cylinder; a crank mounted onto one of said cylinders; atransmission device provided between all bearing cylinders in order toensure their synchronous operation, and a driving device operating insuch way together with said crank that all bearing cylinders bringsimultaneously, by rotation, all arms either in stretched or retractedposition.

By making use of driving mechanism as a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder,the tension applied to the skein from the beginning to the end of theunwinding operation can be kept very accurately constant by adjustingthe pneu- 3,408,022 Patented Oct. 29, 1968 matic or such like cylinder,and thisindependently of the diameter of the skein.

Merely by way of example and without implying any restrictive meaning, adetailed description of one of the possible forms of embodiment of theskein-holder conforming of the present invention shall be given below,whereby this description will be based on the appended drawings ofwhich:

FIGURE 1 is a side-view with partial cross-section of a skein-holderconforming to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a front view which illustrates the skeinholder as seen inthe direction of the arrow II of FIG. 1;

FIGURE 3 is a cross-section by a plane of which the trace follows thestraight line III-III of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 shows the same front view as that which is represented byFIGURE 2, with this difference that the arms of the skein-holder areshown in the retracted position.

In these figures it will be noticed that hOllSillg 1 contains a shaft 2carrying a disc 3. The latter is fitted along its periphery with severalrecesses 4 placed at equal distances of each other. In each one of theserecesses there is a bearing cylinder 5 capable of rotating about itscenterline and ending in a shaft 6. In front, each bearing cylinder hasan opening 7 in which is fastened an arm 8 bent at right angles. Ontoeach shaft 6 of each bearing cylinder 5, a sprocket wheel 9 is fastened.A common chain 10 runs over all these sprocket wheels. On the axis ofone of the bearing cylinders 5 there is a crank 11 of which the free endis coupled to the piston rod 12 of a pneumatic cylinder 13. Thispneumatic cylinder is hinged to disc 3 by means of a pivot 14.

When it is now required to unwind a skein A which has been dyed,impregnated or bleached, it is passed over the arms 8, and pneumaticcylinder 13 is actuated, whence it follows that by means of crank 11,shafts 6, sprocket wheels 9, chain 10 and bearing cylinders 5, the arms8 are caused to extend until the skein is sufficiently tight.

The discs 5, together with the arms 8 which are mounted thereon, are nowrotated by hand until all the fixing threads have passed in front of theoperator whose duty it is to cut them through and remove them. Thethread B is then passed over the head of the skein and through theguiding eyelet C toward a winding machine or unit, known as such and notrepresented. The distance between said eyelet and the skein-holder isadjustable according to the size of the latter and the speed with whichit will be unwound. When the winding machine has been started, thethread is unwound from the fixed arms 8 over the head of the skein asshown in dotted lines in FIG. 1. The loop D which the thread formsduring the unwinding process can, if required, be limited by some ringor other (nonrepresented), in the well known way.

During the unwinding operation of the thread, the tension which the arms8 exert on the skein A can be steadily altered in any requiredproportion by the cylinder 13 which is able to bring very accurately thearms 8 into any extended position. Hence it is now possible to readilykeep the thread under constant tension right from the beginning to theend of the unwinding process.

It is obvious that the shape, the dimensions and the relative positionsof the devices described above may be altered in various fashionswithout in any way exceeding the scope of the present invention. It isquite as evident that some of the parts which have been described abovemay be replaced by other parts which answer the same purpose. In thisconnection, the pneumatic cylinder could quite well be replaced by ahydraulic cylinder or similar device. In the same way of thought,nothing should prevent the addition of complementary parts which mightcontribute to an improved operation of the machine.

I claim: 7

1. A skein-holder for unwinding skeins of thread, comprising a rotatableshaft having a disc thereon in fixed relation thereto, a plurality ofbearing cylinders each rotatably mounted in spaced relation upon thedisc substantially adjacent the periphery of the disc, the bearingcylinders each having a longitudinal centerline and being rotatablethereabout, the centerline of each bearing cylinder being parallel tothe rotatable shaft, an elongated arm attached to each bearing cylinderto extend in a generally radial direction therefrom and having a freeportion extending outwardly therefrom parallel to the centerline of thebearing cylinder, the free portion of the arm being offset from the,centerline of each respective cylinder, driving chain meansinterconnecting all bearing cylinders to provide concurrent rotation ofall of said bearing cylinders at predetermined times, crank means andactuating means connected to one of the bearing cylinders to provide arotative force to said one bearing cylinder wherein when the actuatingmeans is operated the crank means causes each bearing cylinder to berotated by the driving chain means thereby causing the free portion ofthe arm to be radially extended outwardly from the centerline of therotatable shaft.

2. A skein-holder according to claim 1 wherein each arm comprises acylindrical rod bent at right angles to form the free portion and toform a fixed portion, the fixed portion being substantiallyperpendicular to the centerline of the bearing cylinder;

3. A skein-holder according to claim 1 wherein the actuating meanscomprisesa pneumatic cylinder operatively connected to the crank means.1 i

4. A skein-holder according to claim 1 wherein the driving chain isconnected to each bearing cylinder-by a sprocket wheelattached to ashaft extending from one end of each bearing cylinder.

5. The invention of claim 4 wherein each of said sprockets and each ofsaid arms are located on opposite sides of said disc.

6. The invention of claim 5 wherein each of said arms is mounted in agenerally radially extending aperture in each of said bearing cylinders.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,638,283 5/1953 Bebech 242-723,126,607 3/1964 Jenny 2421l0.1 X

FOREIGN PATENTS 983,389 2/1965 Great Britain.

GEORGE F. MAUTZ, Primary Examiner.

